I’m dipping into Sir Walter Scott, who in the early 19th century was everyone’s favourite novelist. The idea is to get into the mindset of my next hero and his generation. I’ve started with The Heart of Midlothian, not by choice but because it was the only one I could get hold of without shelling out cash or waiting for a dusty tome to be fetched from a far-flung library store. Even the writer of the Penguin Classics introduction seemed determined to put me off (rambling plot, patronising dialogue?) but hey, this is research, so nothing ventured …
Verdict? I don’t guarantee to read to the end, but I’ve at least got a feel for Edinburgh in 1730 and if the plot is episodic, at least the episodes have some entertainment value. Dialogue? Okay, I give up. Scots or Latin I might manage, but both together is a bit much!
Meanwhile have just received in the post a book by Paul Bryers whom I’m due to meet next month at Winchester. I think he might be about to supplant Scott as my current bedtime read.
